Taiwan Shuts Down Highway for Butterfly Crossing

Drivers in Taiwan are slowing down – and even stopping – as the annual migration of milkweed butterflies across a highway commences. The Taiwanese government shut down one lane of the highway, lowered the speed limit and even putting up protective nets as the insects cross the road. Trees have been planted along the highway to offer a longer-term, natural net.

The whole process takes about a month, as thousands of butterflies fly over a section of freeway in northern Taiwan on their way home after spending the winter further south.

From MSNBC (Reuters):

Before the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau took protective measures in 2007, many butterflies were hit on the highways or killed by wind from speeding vehicles.

“More than 10,000 butterflies will spread their wings to fly high, bravely crossing the highway, on a different kind of life-or-death journey,” the bureau said in a statement, calling the migration “one of a kind.”

The roadkill rate of butterflies has fallen to 0.3 percent last year from 3 percent before the highway department took action, the bureau said.

First the squirrel walkway across a highway in Scotland, now this. As fast as life is these days, it’s so nice to see people go out of their way to stop a moment and help small creatures like these. It seems that for most people in this world, it’s too easy to forget that we can coexist peacefully with all of the other forms of life on this planet instead of just barrelling through.

Imagine if this happened in America, though – something tells me that Mr. Impatient Ass in a Hummer isn’t going to slow down for butterflies, though he’d have quite a clean-up job ahead of him once he passed through the procession.

Link [MSNBC]

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